India: A Modern History
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Percival Spear, India: A Modern History, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1961, bahai-library.com.
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A Modern History

BY PERCIVAL SPEAR

The University of Michigan History of the Modern World
Edited by Allan Nevins and Howard M. Ehrmann

Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press
INDIA:   ANCIENT       AND   MEDIEVAL                                                                                                            ISLAM      IN   INDIA

98                                                                                                                                                                   99
clashes were not matters of ideology and opinion only, the disapproval,               Tht: Muslims of India, beginning as traders on the Malabar Coast
for example, which a Baptist might feel for a Roman Catholic, or a                 Jnd 3 few thousand troops in Sind, became in course of time one-quarter
Christian Scientist for a Latter-day Saint. They ran through the warp             of tht: whole population. Given the initial disharmony between the two
and woof of the two societies, they touched their deepest feelings about           religions, the traditional Indian antipathy to foreigners, and the Hindu
their way of life; they could arouse their fiercest passions. Only if these        genius for absorption, this fact demands some explanation. How did the
considerations are borne in mind will the historic relations of the two           ;fuslim community grow so large? The first means of recruitment to be
communities in India be intelligible.                                              mentioned was the popular traditional one, conversion by the sword.
Before proceeding further it is necessary to make an important               There is no doubt that this occurred in times of crisis such as foreign
qualification. Islam, like Christianity, has not been the same every-            invasion or of civil commotion. 4 It is equally certain that it was the
where. Again like Christianity, it has been modified by the nations which        i:xception rather than the rule. The evidence of co-operation of Hindu
have accepted it and the cultures which pre-existed it. As Spanish Chris-        officials with Muslim rulers from early days and of relations with Hindu
tianity differs from the American Middle Western or Greek forms, so              chiefs is too strong to admit of the reign of terror which continuous
Indian Islam differs from the Arabian, and Persian from the Moroccan             forcible conversion would mean in a country like India. Forcible converform. Islam as a socioreligious driving force has been modified both by          sion happened, but exceptionally. The next factor was the natural one of
race and by culture. The Arabs gave the original revelation a legalistic         palitical influence. One path to fame and power in a Muslim state led
and litigious twist. Their great contribution was the development of             through conversion. Some ambitious men became Muslims and found
Islamic law or the Shariat. The Turks were a hardheaded, practical race.         themselves in leading positions in the state. But Hindus could also be in-
They modified the religion to suit their convenience, a recent edition of        fluential without denying their faith; in fact, the flow of converts from
the process being carried out by Ataturk in modern Turkey. Persia or            this source was never more than a trickle.
Iran, with its culture and imagination, its proneness to mysticism and              The largest accretions to the community came from two other sources
sensuousness, became the home of Islamic heresies. The Shias, domi-             -migration and persuasion. Under migration can be counted the soldiers
nant in Persia since the sixteenth century, began as a dissenting sect.         of the invading Turkish armies, who settled down in the country. They
The Aga Khan is the head of a heretical sect going back to the Persian          either sent for their families or intermarried locally. In addition to
middle ages. A modern example is the Ba'hai sect. Its mystical sense            individual adventurers, of which the records show there was a steady
found expression in the poets, of whom Hafiz and Rumi attained world            flow, and the rank and file of the invading Turkish armies, whole clans
rank. In the cultural sphere the Arabs of the early Caliphate borrowed '        or tribes on occasion moved in. The most recent example of this on a
heavily from the classical Greek heritage of the countries which they           large scale was the case of the Rohilla Afghans, who, uprooted from
conquered. Plato and Aristotle became familiar names in their thought;          their homeland in the eighteenth century by Nadir Shah the Persian,
indeed the knowledoe of Aristotle was returned to the West at the              moved into India in a body and settled in the submontane tract of Uttar
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University of Paris through Arab channels. The Islamic light, after            Pradesh between the upper Ganges and the hills. Migration accounted
passing through the Persian cultural prism, showed a spectrum of ele-           for many of the upper-class Muslims in India, but the largest source
gance, grace, and toleration not evidenced elsewhere. Though the Arabs         of recruitment was conversion through persuasion. It is this factor which
first brought Islam to northern India, they never got further than Sind.       made the Indian Muslims as a whole a body Indian in blood as well as
The real bearers of Islam to India were the Turks, who were in different       in outlook and affection. The process was carried on only to a limited
ages more or less influenced by Persian culture. In following the story        extent by the orthodox maulvis of the cities and courts. Their interest
of Islam in India it should therefore be borne in mind that every act          was the law and their preference coercion. The most persuasive and
of a Muslim is not necessarily an Islamic act. In tracing any action to        effective agents of Islamic conversion were the Sufis. These were dediits source, whatever judgment may be made upon it, the racial and              cated men, some leading ascetic lives, and some maintaining their
cultural as well as the religious factor must be taken into account. To       families, who devoted their lives to the study and spread of Islam.
take a simple illustration, the Afghan blood feud or the cutting off of l      They were often unorthodox, and included in their ranks many mystics
noses for infidelity is not an Islamic, but a tribal characteristic.    i     and near pantheists, but as a class they were loyal Muslims. Their religion
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-- India: A Modern History (Used by permission of the curator)